The present invention is related to a technology in which usability or operability of a computer system for the user to operate functions of an application program in the system is improved by recognizing on the system side an operation purpose of the user, and in particular, to an operation sequence user adaptive system and an operation sequence user adaptive method in which from operation sequences conducted by the user according to a command system supported by the system, there are extracted a sequence of function series meaningful for the user, thereby producing a new command adapted to preference of the user.
To adapt a computer system to preference of a user, there has been commonly used a method of altering various setting files such as login. and .cshrc files of UNIX. However, the operation to modify, namely, to customize such setting files requires knowledge and human power to a considerable extent and hence cannot be achieved by the user who is not knowledgeable in the field. To facilitate operations of a computer system, there has been increasingly required a computer interface which varies according to preference of the user. According to the interface, namely, the computer automatically feels or detects preference of the user to adapt itself thereto.
As an example of such a user adaptation, there has been an operation to re-arrange candidate character strings in a kana-kanji (Japanese syllabary letters--Chinese characters) conversion software. According to a kanji term input apparatus described in the JP-B-57-32366, the re-arrangement is achieved depending on frequency of uses of characters. In a Japanese sentence input apparatus described in the JP-B-58-39334, the operation is carried out according to last used terms. Although the ideas above are quite suggestive, it is impossible to directly apply them to various kinds of interface.
Furthermore, in an information processing apparatus described in the JP-A-1-318166, information necessary to set a picture quality is inputted depending on a state of each user, thereby setting a picture quality according to preference of the user.
In "EAGER: Programming Repetitive Tasks by Example" described in pages 33 to 39 of the Proc. of CHI '91, Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, there has been proposed an experimental system operating in accordance with HyperCard on Macintosh computers. In this system, however, a Copy-and-Paste operation to extract data items of a certain attribute from a database prepared on a stack of HyperCard to generate a list thereof is automatically detected only to combine a sequence of functions of the operation. Namely, the combination is achieved only for a function sequence formed in a loop. A sequence of functions is configured in a loop only when the function sequence accomplishes a simple operation. As a result, EAGER cannot be utilized for the adaptation of the system to the user in a case of a complex operation, namely, where various kinds of functions are used to operate objects.
As above, to enhance the system adaptation to the user which has been insufficient in the prior art, it is required to discuss the adaptation from standpoints of system designers and users so as to recognize actual problems to be solved.
Ordinarily, when creating a system, the system designer assumes an operation procedure of the user in the system, thereby supplying the prepared system to the user. On the other hand, the user of the system estimates an operation procedure thereof irrespective of the idea of the system designer to operate the system according to an image occurring to his or her mind.
Consequently, there often exists a gap between the operation procedure supplied by the designer and that imagined by the user. For example, a phenomenon of "techno-stress" recently attracting attentions in which the user of a system is frustrated because the system does not operate according to his or her intention is possibly caused by the existence of such a gap between the operation procedures above.